Thought I would just add it up. 18 weeks. WOW. I can't believe it was that long ago. I was 18 stone exactly on the day of the operation. That's 252 pounds. I am now 16 stone 6. That's 230 pounds.
22 pounds lighter.
I am not sure if that is actually that brilliant in 18 weeks. I guess its more than a pound a week, but I did think that it would be more than this by now, or am I just being greedy (No pun intended!)?
I am having another fill in just over a week with Dr. Dovey in Barnes. I am looking forward to meeting him. I would really like it if he could check to see if everything is OK with my band. However, I haven't gained any weight, so it must be doing something right!!
I had a good day today until dinner.. I didn't have breakfast as I wasn't hungry, and then for lunch I had a cucumber sandwich. For dinner we ordered a take away. The first one in a long long time, but a take away kebab nonetheless. It was yummy. Had a little sticky PB moment when I thought I was going to have to be sick, and then it all got better. So, bit of a bad tea, but there we go.
This is a bit boring, but I just sold loads of old junk on eBay. I am amazed. I got about £140 for it all. Its amazing really that I had that amount of stuff lying about the house.
We watched this programme about a couple who were really skint and were in loads of debt and stuff. They called it beat the bailiffs or some rubbish. Another one of those "Lets look at your sad life" kind of shows where they seem to help but probably don't in reality.
This family bought their kid a new toy every week as a treat, and it was like 5 years old or something. They spent at LEAST £40 on the item whatever it was. Basically the kid had shed loads of stuff it never played with ever. They also had loads of clothes, PC's camcorders, TV's and HiFi's and gadgets and stupid gimmicky things like massive floor to ceiling lava lamps and stuff still in the boxes it was bought in. The had all this rubbish in there house that they didn't use basically and they were asking them what on earth they bought it for. They had loads of reasons, but none held water.
So they gave the couple a wake up call. They came into their house one afternoon unexpected and took everything of value away to show them what it would be like if they didn't pay their bills and the bailiffs came around.
The woman said she was devastated and they had to live like it for a week or something. No telly, PC or anything like that you know? They said it was an awful experience. Then they took them to this MASSIVE warehouse with a small pile in the middle, which was their belongings. It looked so sad. This couple had sold their freedom for these few items and it did look really pathetic as I think we are all a little bit guilty of buying things for the sake of it and then repenting at leisure...
Anyway, they were stood over these items tat were the be all and end all of this couples lives and there was a house clearance man. They held up various items and asked him how much they would get for this and that. They held up the telly and he said £20 and they held up a brand new laptop and he said £50 things like that.
Now this is where I thought the show fell down, because you would never get such a crap amount for those items. This couple were like "Oh man, I paid £500 for that" and they were all upset and stuff at how their stuff would be sold like that if in fact the bailiffs did come around. Its just not right. Fair enough, I thought the whole psychology of putting you off debt and even getting you into a more "Lets sort this out" mode was good, but it fell down when they said you would only get like a couple of quid for stuff. Who in their right mind would let the bailiffs come and take away their telly without trying to flog it on eBay first and get the cash for themselves.
I mean, if it was me, I would have sold my stuff long before the bailiffs came knocking. Oh well, what do I know. Maybe its different when its for real. But I sold some SERIOUS rubbish on eBay today, and I got £140 for it. I sold a set of 24 ladybird books I used to teach my son to read, some contact lens cleaner, a pair of swimming arm bands, 3 little lead men for a railway set, a box of coffee and a shower attachment and a load of old karaoke discs. I really expected to get about £20 for the lot. I was WELL chuffed! I have some more crud that I am going to put on tomorrow and see what happens with that.
Its amazing how much spare "cash" you have just lying on your shelves. I am so thrilled with getting £140 for junk that I have the bug! I am looking at all the shelves thinking "Mmmm get rid of that, and that!" Well cool. I am also so annoyed with having such a messy house. How do these other people do it. It is TRULY impossible to have a clean and tidy house for more than 12 hours. I think they pay people to do it. I just turn around and its a pig sty again! So getting rid of some knick-knacks will be a good thing indeed! It just clutters up the place and collects dust. Since we moved the Piano after the remodelling of our lounge, I never put the photos and bits and bobs back. i am so glad. I can get my duster and 'sweep!' and its done. All shiny. It used to be a pigging nightmare!! I am really into to 'cash for clutter' club!
I will post a photo of the swimming pool tomorrow. Its going well. I have tiled the outside and levelled the floor off with concrete and filled all the gaps with sealant. I am going to paint the whole of the inside of the pool with roof sealer tomorrow before I put on the tiles just to make extra sure that the pool does not leak. It is wicked stuff. In our first house, we accidentally cracked the toilet cistern when we were about to move house. We couldn't get another one as it was one of those old manky avocado coloured ones, so we painted it with roof sealer a couple of times and it worked like a dream! So there we go. Slap it on nice and thick and then tile it all.
The grout annoyed me today because I had just grouted the whole outside when someone called me and I had to take the call. When I got back it had gone and sett lovely and hard for me. Not good. I had to scrape it all off painstakingly which took hours. I still have one other wall to scrape off!!
Anyway, off to bed now for an early start tomorrow in the garden!
Most people don't realize that many spices have a good amount of vitamins and nutritional goodness. Spices can add wonderful zing to many low-calorie dishes that may otherwise taste bland. Especially if you are trying to cut down on your salt intake, many spices make marvelous substitutes. 
Bret Baier set out to lose 25 pounds by the time his son is born in July. He started his exercise and diet plan on Christmas day. Baier is the Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel. He travels with the President and covers all foreign policy and domestic issues involving the Presidency.